Door moving structure

ABSTRACT

Structure for closing and opening railway boxcar sliding doors comprising a member permanently affixed to the car side wall, and a device readily applicable to the fixed member on any car by a merchandise shipper during loading, but then detached prior to shipment, a corresponding device being possessed by one or more consignees to be used in opening the door for unloading.

United States Patent Bollinger, Sr. et a].

[ Mar. 12, 1974 DOOR MOVING STRUCTURE [75] Inventors: Luther L. Bollinger, Sn, Reading;

James J. Hennessy, Jr., Chambersburg, both of Pa.

[73] Assignee: Hennessy Products, Incorporated,

Chambersburg, Pa.

[22] Filed: Jan. 29, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 327,703

52 us. Cl. 49/362 [5l] Int. Cl E05f 11/34 [58] Field of Search 49/209, 219, 220, 362

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,468,062 9/1969 Custer 49/362 Hennessy, Jr 49/362 Bollinger, Sr. 49/362 X Primary Examiner-Kenneth Downey Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Bedell and Burgess [57] ABSTRACT 9 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures DOOR MOVING STRUCTURE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Various patents, such as US. Pat. Nos. 3,468,062 3,636,658 and 3,683,552 have disclosed car door moving structures involving manually operated devices permanently mounted on the car side and connected to a sliding door to facilitate moving the door, but the structures included complete operating mechanisms which added to the cost of the individual car, could be operated by thieves and could be damaged by impact of highway trucks or other trackside structures.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention avoids the disadvantages of the permanently mounted devices and affords a measure of control between shipper and consignee, in addition to facilitating the door opening and closing operations; and does not add a financial burden to the railroads. The present operating device may be applied to the racks of the devices embodied in the above-mentioned patents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a railway boxcar with permanently attached bar on its side wall, without operating mechanism applied.

FIG. 2 is a corresponding view drawn to a larger scale, showing a portable housing with operating mechanism applied to the bar.

FIG. 3 is a vertical transverse section on line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION A side door 1 closes an opening in the side wall 2 of a boxcar, and may include mechanism 3 for moving a plug-type door transversely of the opening. The door is slidable along a track 4 on the lower portion of the car side. Usually such doors are moved by hand, but due to distortion of the door on the door track, levers or hand trucks are sometimes employed to forcibly move the door lengthwise of the car.

A bar 7 is attached to'the car wall and is offset therefrom by spacers 8. Preferably the bar is a rack with teeth 9.

The moving mechanism comprises a housing 1'1, having a horizontal offset 12, which rides on bar 7 and is detachably held thereon by a spring-pressed handle 13 having offset upper portions 14 engaging the rear face of bar 7.

A toothed pinion 15 and a hand wheel 17 secured thereto are fixed on pinion shaft 18 journaled on housing 11. A link 20 connects housing II with a bracket 21 on the door. The mechanism comprising housing 11, pinion 15, wheel 17 and connecting link 20 are readily applied to the bar, and afford a substantially increased manpower which is adequate to move the door along the bar in either direction to open or close the door respectively.

It will be understood that the bar rack may be installed on each boxcar by the railroad and the portable operating mechanisms may be acquired by various shippers and consignees for application to cars received by them. This reduces the financial expense to railroads for the individual car moving mechanisms disclosed in the various patents as mentioned above. Indeed the portable mechanism may be applied to cars such as have been equipped with the car moving mechanism of the patents referred to where the mechanism has been damaged by contact with highway trucks or other structures.

The portable housing and gearing shown, readily applicable to and removable from the car, is illustrative of the invention, but multiple gearing or a ratchet device may be substituted for that shown without departing from the spirit of the invention as expressed in the accompanying claims.

We claim:

1. Door moving structure for a railway boxcar having a side wall with a door opening and a door slidable along the car wall to close and expose the door opening, an elongated horizontal bar for affixing to a car side, a portable housing for ready mounting on and detachment from said bar, manually operable means on said housing for engaging the bar when mounted thereon to move said housing along the bar, and a readily detachable member for connecting said housing to a car sliding door to move said door along the car wall relative to the door opening as said means moves said housing along said bar.

2. Door moving structure as described in claim 1 in which the bar is a toothed rack and the manually operable means comprises a toothed pinion journaled on said housing and engageable with the rack teeth, and a manually operable device for rotating said pinion.

3. Door moving structure as described in claim 1 in which the bar is a toothed rack and the manually operable means comprises a toothed pinion journaled on said housing and engageable with the rack teeth, and a relatively large diameter hand wheel for rotating said pinton.

4. A door moving structure as described in claim 1 in which the connection member is a link extending from the housing and readily attachable to and detachable from a car door.

5. A door moving structure as described in claim 1 in which a vertically movable latch depends from the housing to engage the bar when the housing is mounted thereon and oppose the bar when the latch is in raised position to hold the housing against removal transversely of the bar.

6. A railway car door moving device comprising a portable housing of narrow inverted U section with legs adapted to straddle an elongated horizontal support bar on a car wall, manually operable leverage means on said housing for engaging the support bar to move the housing along the same, and detachable elements for connecting the housing to a car door.

7. A railway car door moving device as described in claim 6 in which a spring-pressed latch is slidable vertically on the lower portion of one leg of the housing and the upper portion of the latch is offset laterally from the mounting leg and overlaps the lower portion of the bar to prevent lateral removal of the housing from the bar.

8. A door moving device as described in claim 7 in which the housing is of inverted U-shape section and receives the elongaged bar between its legs, and the housing outer leg extends downwardly below the level of said bar, and a handle is slidable vertically on the inner face of the leg and has its upper end offset transversely away from said leg to oppose the face of the door bar when raised and to clear said bar when lowered.

3,796,007 3 4 9. In combination, a railway car side wall having an operable device on said housing engageable with said opening, a slidable door for closing said opening, a substantially horizontal bar fixedly secured to said wall adjacent said opening, a portable housing detachably mounted on said bar and slidable thereon, a manually 5 bar for movement along the same, and means connecting said housing to said door. 

1. Door moving structure for a railway boxcar having a side wall with a door opening and a door slidable along the car wall to close and expose the door opening, an elongated horizontal bar for affixing to a car side, a portable housing for ready mounting on and detachment from said bar, manually operable means on said housing for engaging the bar when mounted thereon to move said housing along the bar, and a readily detachable member for connecting said housing to a car sliding door to move said door along the car wall relative to the door opening as said means moves said housing along said bar.
 2. Door moving structure as described in claim 1 in which the bar is a toothed rack and the manually operable means comprises a toothed pinion journaled on said housing and engageable with the rack teeth, and a manually operable device for rotating said pinion.
 3. Door moving structure as described in claim 1 in which the bar is a toothed rack and the manually operable means comprises a toothed pinion journaled on said housing and engageable with the rack teeth, and a relatively large diameter hand wheel for rotating said pinion.
 4. A door moving structure as described in claim 1 in which the connection member is a link extending from the housing and readily attachable to and detachable from a car door.
 5. A door moving structure as described in claim 1 in which a vertically movable latch depends from the housing to engage the bar when the housing is mounted thereon and oppose the bar when the latch is in raised position to hold the housing against removal transversely of the bar.
 6. A railway car door moving device comprising a portable housing of narrow inverted U section with legs adapted to straddle an elongated horizontal support bar on a car wall, manually operable leverage means on said housing for engaging the support bar to move the housing along the same, and detachable elements for connecting the housing to a car door.
 7. A railway car door moving device as described in claim 6 in which a spring-pressed latch is slidable vertically on the lower portion of one leg of the housing and the upper portion of the latch is offset laterally from the mounting leg and overlaps the lower portion of the bar to prevent lateral removal of the housing from the bar.
 8. A door moving device as described in claim 7 in which the housing is of inverted U-shape section and receives the elongaged bar between its legs, and the housing outer leg extends downwardly below the level of said bar, and a handle is slidable vertically on the inner face of the leg and has its upper end offset transversely away from said leg to oppose the face of the door bar when raised and to clear said bar when lowered.
 9. In combination, a railway car side wall having an opening, a slidable door for closing said opening, a substantially horizontal bar fixedly secured to said wall adjacent said opening, a portable housing detachably mounted on said bar and slidable thereon, a manually operable device on said housing engageable with said bar for movement along the same, and means connecting said housing to said door. 